Tie-Dye & Will

I finally took pictures and downloaded them ... I said in an earlier post that I'd post pictures of recent tie-dye projects. Since I've not tie-dyed since my teen years (that wonderful hippie era!) I read the new info for review and see what's new. Then I practiced. The goal was curtains Sarah bought for their open stairwell tall window, and I didn't want to practice on them!

I bought a soft 100% cotton queen-sized sheet set - a great thing to practice on. Some parts I swirled and rubber-banded. Some parts I pleated and rubber-banded or wrapped with a waxed string. Some parts I just banded in a circle for the typical tie-dye bulls-eyes. What did I learn? You think you've soaked the material (it was already wetted in a soda ash solution) and no white is visible, and you worry that it's all just soaking together and going to be a solid dark mess.

I left the sheets: top, fitted, and pillow cases in separate plastic bags (and did a pair of socks too - ordered these really soft bamboo socks that I think I'm going to get more of) to sit in a warm spot while Monte and me flew down to drive Heather and Will here to Colorado, stopping and visiting some old friends along the way. Once home I rinsed them, unbanding them ... and oh ... so much white! So I retied them and squirted more colors on and let sit 24 hours, then rinsed and washed them. My original trials got covered so I couldn't really see my patterning, but that's okay. They are just sheets and going to be slept on. The picture is them on the guest bed at Travis and Sarah's (her family came to stay over the Thanksgiving holiday).

At Travis and Sarah's we squirted a lot of colors on paper towels and let dry. Travis narrowed the choice down to four colors. We folded the long curtains in thirds and pleated them and tied and rubber-banded them. It's easier to tie up the centers of long things with the waxed string than try and rubber band them. We're working on a large metal sheet I got years ago at an auto supply store - it's what people put in garages under leaky cars. I use it all the time on the kitchen table with my wet felting and anything else messy. Sarah worked on one curtain and me on the other and we had them laying side-by-side and doing the same color squirted between the bindings so the hanging curtains would have the same striping. Sarah left them in their plastic bags in a bucket for a couple days before rinsing and washing. So we all waited anxious - they just looked dark with no color variation when all wet, and no white showing - we really soaked them! Sarah emailed me so excited about how they'd turned out. I didn't see them till Thanksgiving day.

While I'm at it, I'll post a recent picture of Will. Will usually eats his supper just before us in his little green Bumbo chair (it's from South Africa and Dawson wishes he had one!). We leave him up on the table while we eat and have a gay ole time with him! He's our "center piece"!

Will movie

Dawson showed me how to make my movies smaller size. It emailed to Bill and now I'm going to try again posting it here - of Will learning to eat solid? food! I'm doing most of the talking and Will reaches for the camera.

Heather and Will

Little Will has just started eating solid foods. I've been taking short movie's of him. So since I was able to post one of my movies this morning I'm going to try another tonight of Will eating. I've not been able to email them to his dad who's in Iraq, so maybe Bill can see them here. And I've got one more week to capture things before Monte drives them back to Texas for a couple months.

I want to capture him saying "Dadadada..." and giggling ... He's quite the thinker. He watches our mouths making sounds and we can see his mouth trying to copy the same motions. Will's 7 months old now.

I give up ... for now ... it's taking too long to upload. I think I've got to figure out how to post to uTube first, cuz their videos are longer and yet upload ok.

Menopause?

I jokingly call menopause "mental pause". But I'm there. How long does it last? It starts for some people early - believed to be the result of pesticides, hormones in our food, stress, etc. I'm at the age women in the old days started menopause.

Why am I talking about this? Yesterday I went for a physical. I've not had one in quite awhile, or I should say some things started several years ago never got completed. I thought I was over the hump, meaning that my body has entered the next woman's season of life ... but no.

Monte was reading about menopause on line. Do other men do this?!!! ;^) Well, Monte read that the possibility of having a baby in the house this summer has thrown my hormones for a loop.

But ya know what happened yesterday that is so typical of my body, but this was the worst! ... I was poked by 8 (or was it 9?) needles (and two nurses and the doctor) trying to draw my blood! I hate saying something to nurses, not wanting to start them off scared. And if you're going to ask me the typical question of if I drank enough water? ... YES!!!

Four tries were in the early morning since I had fasted. When they think they got enough for the one test needing my having fasted, they told me to go home, eat, and drink TONS of water and just drop in again. So I did just after lunch. Finally, the fourth one that time filled three more tubes.

I've heard in the past, "your veins are good but they collapse or roll". They did get veins this time but my blood is so thick (probably why I had blood clots in my last pregnancy). In the past I've tried laughing to make the blood flow more.

I told them they need to write in bold red letters on the front: Hard to draw blood! Put a warm pad on first. Use the smallest butterfly needle you've got. I think too they should draw my blood first when I get there and have been drinking a lot, and then do the rest of the appointment.

Now just the gap of time waiting, hoping all's well.

Rhubarb

Today has been a cloudy day and now rainy all afternoon. For years Heather has been the main harvester of rhubarb, so since she's here, she harvested a bunch this morning and this afternoon we got it cut, bagged, and in the freezer - freezing 31 heaping quarts and 28 heaping pints.

When we picked out this site for our home to be built on, rhubarb and chokecherries were already here. They could be 100 years old. An old homestead foundation was here along with an outhouse and a smokehouse. I think the hitching rail is still standing.

The rhubarb had seeded way out into the meadow. We kept the ones to the back close to the chokecherries and aspen grove and woods, fencing in a space for a garden. A guy was here bulldozing a road into our site and the area for putting our house. He pulled back the sod from the garden area for us. That was 25 years ago - the longest home I've lived in.

Monte saw that we were going to be at the rhubarb for a long time so jumped in and helped us a lot! Will sat by watching when awake.

Look under "Recipes" to see my Rhubarb Custard Pie and Rhubarb Crunch recipes. I also use frozen rhubarb for making Rhubarb Aid which all guests have liked.

Consuming Happenings

Some people have asked where I am? Well, I am currently sitting outside right now as I write/type looking out at my beautiful environment: what I've created and what's naturally surrounding us, i.e., lush (for now) meadows, evergreen woods and aspen grove. Lush because we've been getting lots of moisture. it's been cool, not quite summer yet. Cool? While most of you are experiencing close to 100 degree days, our highs have been close to 70 and nights around 40. Birds are a big piece of the scene for me. I'd be hearing them anyway, but I've created a wonderful habitat for them that they seem to love and frequent.

My landscape architecture schooling is finally getting to show it's results in my home setting and especially now having an electric fenced yard. Finally getting to see what plantings look like when not destroyed by critters - primarily elk! It's satisfying and relaxing now to see the elk outside my domain. See them relaxing too, bedded down in the lush meadow? Their antlers are in velvet right now and not fully grown. Antlers are the fastest growing ... (I forget - help Monte).

This is the busiest time of the year for me, that's why I've not been writing. I'm still planting. Mother nature has done weird twists with the extra moisture. And then us messing with mother nature ... Like the hot tub we put in this past winter. We bulldozed into the hill so it would be nestled into the hillside. Good thing Monte walled it in with a drainage tube and gravel, but the flower bed and rock work Dawson got ready for me around the tub area collapsed and is still oozing with a slow running stream. I guess better now than later with lots of stuff planted. It's so easy (and cheaper) to dream and order lots of bare-root plants in February and have them come in the mail. But what if mother nature butts in showing me I'm not in total control?! Some things survived sitting in their wrappings in the cold garage and finally got planted when the snow was finally gone and are now leafing out - so I know they are alive. And some things I had to pot and let sit in my greenhouse and are now sitting, still in pots, outside awaiting some areas to get finished for planting.

Other happenings? Company: after the nephews of one of the last posts we've had a Norwegian guest and then Monte's geology partner Stan, and of course, lots of Dawson's friends, and then Heather with Will are here. So more cleaning (more organizing - going thru stuff I've not looked at for years!) and cooking. Heather's in the guest room, so we moved a dresser in there and I cleaned out the closet (think about what that would mean sister dear!). I set up the laundry room as another guest room with our nice air-bed for other guests that'll be occasionally coming.

The garage is clean now with Dawson having made a workshop under Monte's office deck, so the treadmill could have a final resting place, out of the laundry room and into the garage. Dawson and friend Nick finished the house siding out back. Dawson and friends took down rotting dog kennel and cleared out the whole area to that side of the house (wood piles, etc), moving his old ferret house (housing his old large fish tanks, gerbil stuff, and my garden stuff) down to attach to the old chicken coop. The coop will never house chickens again and is being cleaned up for storage of a differing 'beast' - occasionally used junk. Dawson and friends have been hauling rocks and dirt to finish back landscaping. They've had to put down boards at times since the wheelbarrows would sink in mud made from the oozing hot tub hillside.

Heather's enjoying being here. She's using my laptop, since it's accesible, and maybe that keeps me from writing a post too - but no, not really, I'm just outside mostly, tho I am outside now, but writing a post. Having come from hot Texas it's a bit cool for her, but she's liking it better than the humid heat. Summer will come here too soon. We'll typically jump from Winter/Spring weather to Summer heat - which for us averages in the 80's-90's.

Dawson just came out having awakened and is opening out his tents to air and dry, telling me climbing Pikes Peak yesterday was the hardest climb him and his climbing friends have ever done. Why? Because of the snow still on the ground in places. Well duh, what did they expect this time of year?!! The mountains are still getting snow (we've come close still)!

So current life is getting used to the new patterns of summer activity and having a Grandbaby around. It's good he's not crawling around yet - that'll be a new house reorganization come the holidays when Heather plans to return again for a spell. (Oh a bird just scared me, landing on my laptop and scared himself!) So the new season of life? being Grandparents.

Dedication Pic

Bill sent pictures of their dedication of Will Sunday, so I'm posting one.

Bill, Heather, and Will Lavender.

Baby Dedication

Bill has been home from Iraq almost a week and enjoying being home with Heather and Will. They will be flying this next week to spend a few days with Bill's Father and brother.

This morning, they're dedicating William Lavender III at their church.

Weather and Heather

Our Internet is going in and out and I've got pots filled with water in case our electricity goes out. So far we've gotten more than 1 1/2 feet of snow!!!! Hard to tell with the warm ground - it could be melting almost as fast as it's coming down. I've got Monte's internet wireless stick while he's out shoveling and knocking wet cement snow from some bushes and trees and shoveling. We've still got another 28 hours of winter storm watch to go and it's supposed to snow harder this afternoon. Winter?!!!! I sprang forward with Spring, but so too did Winter!

So glad Monte rescheduled flying out Monday instead of tomorrow morning. So glad we've got a wood cookstove: to curl up by for warmth and atmosphere, to cook on if need be, melt snow if need be ... So glad Dawson and Monte sawed and chopped more wood a few weeks ago.

Dawson stayed in Denver last night, just in case ... but school canceled. I think the lilacs and crabapples, even tho no leaves yet but starting to bud out, might be permanently bent! I'm going to have to fill the bird feeders soon with the abundance of birds. Sure would be cool to capture a picture of tons of birds nestled in the midst of trees - isn't that where they go in weather like this? Robins can't get their worms ... But it's supposed to be 70 come Tuesday so this will melt fast!


Heather's Bill is coming home for two weeks. He may be there now. As of last night, she didn't know when. They are not to say anything until they're out of Iraq and on their way home. So she's excited and been getting ready. They will probably fly to California to visit Bill's dad and brother and let them meet little Will. But then, Bill himself is meeting his son, little Will, too for the first time!

Gardening and Blog

I found a great gardening blog. They garden for a restaurant. I was googling growing potatoes in a pot, which is what I'm going to do this year - and found this site. You've gotta see what she plants in the hole before putting in the tomato plant (like fish head, 2 aspirin ... :)

We've been getting more snow, which is a good thing, and more to come. I'm starting my seeds in the greenhouse now.

Heather sent me a picture of the little garden I started for her that first week of February while I was in Texas. I don't know if this picture shows them, but I'd started some tomatoes in an aerogarden she has, before I left, and she says she's given some of them away, some are in pots and she put some in this garden. I don't know how much longer lettuce will grow in Texas heat, but she's been eating salads everyday. Heather sounds good. She'll find out next Monday if her pneumonia is all gone.

Heather update

Heather went to emergency last night. Her fever returned yesterday and she's been sounding awful. A church friend and then her new neighbor helped her with Will at the hospital all night. She was released this morning. It sounds like they checked everything from xrays to scans.

She's got the beginnings of pneumonia and she's begun treatment. So now we know. Now maybe she can start getting rest and heal and enjoy being a mother with a new baby more!

White Chili Soup

Heather called me asking for the chicken soup recipe I'd made for her and froze when I was with her in Texas that month. I decided to post it here and tell you that Heather is sick. I think she got that same flu bug that's everywhere. Hers started with a sore throat and fever and now she's really coughing and can hardly talk with me. Maybe she'll go to a doctor if it stays the same or worsens this week, but all's I could suggest was sleeping whenever baby Will sleeps - daytime too, since she's not getting much sleep. Will is doing well. So pray for Heather please.

White Chili Soup

3 16oz cans northern white beans

4 c cooked chicken

1 Tb olive oil

2 medium chopped onions

2 cloves minced garlic

2 4oz cans chopped green chilies

2 Tb ground cumin

6 c chicken broth

3 c  grated jack cheese

That's how my good friend Jeanie, who's moved away, gave it to me. Now I'll tell you what I do:

I do usually use the canned beans, but might at times cook the beans from scratch, which would probably be about 2 cups of dry beans. I prefer the smaller white beans. I usually cook up a whole chicken, both for the meat and the broth. Otherwise I use organic chicken broth. I usually have cooked chicken and turkey in the freezer from past meals, but in a bind, I've used canned chicken. I can't tell you the sizes, but I think I used three cans.

Saute the chopped onion and garlic in the olive oil. I always add more garlic than recipes call for. Then add the chopped green chilies. We always have frozen roasted anaheim chilies in our freezer from the farmer's market. I get a bushel and usually 3 chilies equals 4 ounces. I don't remove the blackened skin when freezing, but remove it when thawed and I'm readying to chop them (and don't like washing it off, as I think I'm washing away good flavor, but just run my fingers down the chili to remove the skin, stem end, and seeds, then I do have to wash my hands to remove it all from them!). And the cumin, I grind fresh. I rarely buy pre-ground spices, preferring their fresh ground flavor. My cute little wood mortar & pestle sit on my kitchen windowsill.

If I'm taking the soup somewhere, then I put the cheese in it too. At home, we grate cheese and put some in our soup bowls and ladle in the soup. From another chicken soup recipe, I fell in love with fresh avacado cut in chunks and added to the soup bowls. When we have guests (some guests having had it more than once - and they love it!) we typically set up meals buffet style on our island in the middle of the kitchen that the stove is a part of. So the soup pot stays on the stove and there'll be a wooden bowl with wooden tongs of grated cheese and a bowl of cut up avacados (with fresh squeezed lime juice to keep them from browning). Homemade bread and salad top off the meal.

Smiling Will

Heather sent me another picture of Will. I need to call her. I haven't cuz I've been so sick with the flu since it hit hard last Wednesday night. My fever stopped Sunday night and today is the first day my body's not aching and not minding the feel of clothes. But my voice is weak, sometimes giving out, and I try not to cough, as much as I'm able. Still wondering if I should keep my dental appointment Thursday ...

The last time I was this sick was when the Denver Broncos went to the Supper Bowl. I can't tell you when cuz sports isn't my thing and I don't hold those things in my brain. We had gone to a friend's house cuz we don't have a TV (no reception, cable or satellite)(only watch movies). I sat in the background knitting and coughing. Because I didn't slow down enough then, it went into a secondary infection, and I don't want that to happen this time.

Now if we had TV, all this sick time I could have watched the Food Network, History or Discovery Channel ... But instead, I've gone thru all the library books I had on Cottage/Kitchen Gardens, dreaming, and ordered my fruiting plants and veggie seeds. I also have been researching tapestry online and reading the books I have.

What I didn't tell you, is that when I was in Texas with Heather, Monte drove down past the heart of Denver on Supper Bowl Sunday and picked up my large tapestry loom I bought from craigslist the day after Thanksgiving, having sold my large Swedish Glimakra loom (I'm going to miss that loom for it's beauty, but I still have a smaller 8-harness one).

I'm the one who found out what my secondary infection was that last time. I have a history with illnesses (and our doctor's often call Monte "Doctor Monte", he's so analytical). They had done the typical-to-today swab of the throat with the quick strep test. I told them to also swab a petri dish and watch it. It wasn't until a week later that it showed up as positive!

I had strep a lot as a kid. If it wasn't for my Homeopathic Grandma making me continuously eat yogurt, my body would really be messed up today. Since antibiotics kill the good with the bad bacteria, yogurt helps us with the needed good bacteria the strengthens our system. My homemade yogurt is my favorite! I love eating it just plain.

In high school, because of strep, mono, and valley fever (a desert disease), antibiotics helped me graduate. But I couldn't have PE classes for two of my years - oh bummer - sure, remember me, the non-sport, hate exercise person?! But I had to take up the gap with something: so more hands-on classes! Since I already was taking my favorite art class, which I took every year, I took photography - roaming the campus with cameras and learning to work in the dark room; I took woodshop, and printing - learning movable type, block printing, etc.

Oh ... once Monte kissed me, I never had strep again except that one Supper Bowl year. Now what does that mean?!

Spiritual Birthdays and Tacos and stuff

Today is Travis's Spiritual Birthday and last thursday was Dawson's. When our kids were little there'd be God-talk-times, but there seems to be a definite time when children ask deeper questions and want to commit their life to God. Monte said he did it when he was eight, soon after realizing that his dad wasn't 'God' and in control of everything. He simply transferred that trust in his dad to trust in God.

I wrote these times on the calendar for each of our kids. Then each year we'd celebrate that birthday with a special treasure hunt meal. The meal had lots of condiments so we could hide them around the house. Since curry (which makes a great treasure hunt meal) isn't a favorite of my kids, we tended to do a taco meal. We'd make up riddles as clues to be left with each food item, guiding them to the next. Eventually everything is at the table and we can eat. There's a final note at their plate reminding them of their treasure in Heaven.

I quick fry corn tortillas so they're soft. Then there's bowls of cooked ground meat, grated cheese, chopped tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, and sour cream, and sometimes guacamole, chips and salsa, and maybe beans. It's one of my favorite childhood meals I grew up with, and my family loves it too. I prefer the soft cooked shells to the traditional crisp shells because the first bite tends to crack the shell down the middle and everything falls out! If you travel to Mexico soft corn tacos is traditional.

I still remember the first time we did this - and we usually retell the story. Heather was just learning to read. Monte was out of town and my sister Kelli was living with us (and that's a powerful story!) so I wrote out very simple clues. Travis, not able to read yet, was practically hanging on to Heather's shirt tail waiting for her to sound out the clues so they could run and find the food. Like she'd be saying, "Look in the re-frig g g g ..." with a hard 'g' sound, as she was slowly walking upstairs. Finally I said, "The refrigerator is not upstairs!" And they'd take off running and laughing.

When Deuteronomy says several times, "teach the children diligently", "tell the children" - this is kinda like another commemoration as is the Lord's Supper and Passover. I'll tell you, our kids never grew up wondering if they were a Christian or not. And what great memories we have celebrating (partying) together around God's Truth and Presence in our lives.

Yesterday at MOPS I did the devotional. It was Tea and Testimony day, so the whole time was filled with five people's stories. Lots of laughter, tears and evoked memories. I combined two things I've posted: The Jar of my life and the Spouse story.

Monte and me thought of some new connections: each of us, so not just me, but Monte, my kids, our friends ... have jars of their lives. I see the larger items as relational, long lasting, for better health and living beyond maintenance, and maybe even eternal. When I got to the part in the story where Sarah's mom felt an urging to pray for Sarah's future mate at the same timing as Travis' horrible illness (if you're lost you need to click on the above stories and read) - I really started crying this time! Through my tears as I put my hand over my beautiful jar of fruit (I took it as a visual aid) I told of the possibilities when other persons have a grapefruit in their jar that they've named "Heart Keeping" and have that relationship with God - that there's a depth in relationships between spouses, relations, friends and community.

I was given a glimpse, tho twenty-some years later, of what the power of prayer can be. And I bet paradise is going to be full of these stories!

Another twist Monte and me are still pondering, is what if two people marry and they seem compatible and their jars are just filled with sand? What might that say? I had quickly voiced the book title "Amusing Ourselves to Death" as a possibility.

This morning I emailed Heather, telling her I think I absorbed her fever last night. I'm sitting here with a thermometer in my mouth. Last night I all-of-a-sudden started getting a tickle-cough, and slept terribly hot, and now if I cough, it's hurting deeper than my throat. We'll see ... we so rarely get sick. I guess it would be good for my immune system.

Heather's fever is low-grade and comes and goes. She talked with the lactation nurse who helped us so much at the hospital. So between having her advice and all Heather's reading and doing, she's going to be ok. Probably the beginnings of mastitis. Other than still wishing she could sleep longer ... she's really enjoying little Will. She says he copies her facial expressions and likes holding her fingers.

My temp is 99.9.

Heather

Monte and Me have been trying to call Heather regularly. Sounds like Bill and her talk regularly too and see one another on their computers. Heather has both church and military wives, who's husbands are deployed in the same unit, getting together regularly with Heather too. She's not had to go to the grocery store, as others bring her her needs. Some come and clean. She's got gals to talk to and a new neighbor. She has gotten out on her own, walking and driving, getting used to the car seat, and stroller and all.

Other than learning everything new and getting used to one another, I think they're doing good. Heather tho is starting to feel some soreness and has a slight fever as of yesterday and will probably check into it tomorrow, if still the same or worse. So hopefully it's nothing much.

Heather has prayed very specifically since she was about 10 about her desires to marry and be a mother. I prayed too, that God would honor a little girl's prayers, who never gave up, tho she approached the age of 30 with neither. When she filled out her profile on eHarmony, initially, she had no matches. After talking with me about it she said, "Maybe I'm looking for Papa or Jesus." And then came Bill.

So more prayers please.

 

Photos

People have been begging me to post photos of my new (first) Grandbaby. On Facebook I had posted my status for a week as "Karey is; simply a 'state-of-being'" - sometimes feeling like a zombie or robot in what I was doing. I knew my time in Texas was soon to end and once that baby was born, we were so tired, I just had to keep plugging away at finishing things up, so Heather's year without Bill, alone with their baby, could go smoothly. I wanted her to be able to relax and enjoy life and little Will.

So now that I'm home ... after taking Monte to the airport today (he's in Sonoita, Arizona for the week), I took the time to post lots of pictures on my photoblog. So cruise thru the varying days to view a variety of photos.

Notice I said "first" above? While Heather and me were readying for another nursing time, my iPhone rang. Travis and Sarah were calling and asked, "Hey Mom, do you want to spend time with us like you're doing now, in 8 1/2 months?" "Oh ... is that how you're telling me you're going to have a baby?"

So I guess this is the year Monte and me are adding the names Grandpa and Grandma to 'who we are'!

Colorado Mountains

I've returned home to mountainous Colorado. Did you know Colorado has almost 60 peaks over fourteen thousand feet? They are called 14ers and people climb them, checking them off their list. Colorado is also the source for four of North America's major rivers. Monte and me have often spoken about watershed life decisions and nearby here we can straddle the Continental Divide and raindrops or snow melt can end up in either the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans - quite the watershed!

I returned home to other mountains too: mountains of laundry and mountains of mail! Since yesterday was Valentines Day, as I attacked the mountain of mail, I thought of Monte and ripped out words and pictures that reminded me of him.

Remember the Velveteen House III post I did the night before I left for Texas? All the bedding of the four couples who slept here were piled in the laundry room this month I've been gone. So I tackled that mountain, washing the sheets first, before moving to the piles of clothes.

Monte cooked me salmon for our Valentine supper and had bought roses and goodies. He loved the collage I made for him.

More

I am taking pictures and will post some soon. Just wanting to get ahead and done with everything before I leave. Monte's coming back Tuesday night and I'll go home with him Friday night. Then Heather's on her own.

Oh ... I packed up Max the dog yesterday morning and took him to a kennel they've used to board him until further decisions can be made. He's a german shepherd (and due to horrible childhood memories, I am biased against them), but he does have a wonderful temperament, but so strong and high maintenance. The first eve I brought Heather and baby home, Heather was walking in her post surgery soreness and the baby was whimpering. I was carrying the baby and he was so powerfully shoving me. I was attempting to put the baby in the tall strong bassinet so to go put him outside, and he was almost in the bassinet! It seemed he thought Heather was hurt and the baby was the enemy to get or attack. If a leg had been dangling ... I have had bad dreams. Then the next day, all of us exhausted and asleep, his sharp barking all of a sudden after silence, startled us.

I need to go, the baby moniter is sounding Will's getting ready for the next feeding. That's what we're living between ... oh do I remember those days. But it does go by fast ... looking back.

Exhausted

What all do I tell?! I am very exhausted as I try helping Heather not be exhausted. She was able to come home from the hospital last eve, and hadn't really slept since last Friday night. I couldn't get over how lucid she was with all her questions and all the stuff thrown at her, yet nodding off as she'd quietly sit nursing, or finally a moment when no one's around. Glad I was knitting socks, so occupied and trying to keep her at peace.

Tho I hardly sleep, she's getting sleep.

All's I can say is Will is really a cutey and very good. Pray for us to remain healthy. He's a bit jaundiced, so we're working at him eating good, which means an electric breast pump a sweet nurse at the hospital let us borrow. I take him for more blood tests tomorrow.

It's good to be home is all Heather keeps saying. Good night.

BABY!

I got 6 hours sleep last night and hoping Heather got some sleep, since she didn't sleep saturday night. Yesterday was a LONG day. Heather's water broke at 2:30am and we were at the hospital at 3:30. It's only 5 minutes away and because her labor was progressing slowly I came home several times to check in on the dog. They'd send me home to ... to eat, or shower, or "Nap" they said. I did get in 1 hour. So I just about got one sock knit.

Just to sum things up, by 8pm, after all day of contractions not being consistent and baby starting to show bleep drops on the monitor paper following her contractions, and only dilated 1cm, they suggested a C-section, and I was given scrubs to change into. Bill called quite a few times during the day (we can't call him, only notify Red Cross), called, from us getting checked into the hospital till her in her final room and nursing the baby for the first time and he heard him crying. She cried while talking with him in the evening.

Bill is a Steelers fan and we watched the game, Heather wanting to be doing what Bill was doing. She was wheeled away when the Cardinals made their final touchdown. I wasn't retrieved until the game ended, so gave them in the room the finale of a Steeler touchdown at the end (tho some had been texted).

William Lavender III was born at 21.27 hundred time (however you write that in military time - you know, around here, like when we were at Baskin Robins, I noticed the opening and closing time in military time!); and was 6.15 pounds and 20" long.

I'm about to go back to the hospital. She'll be in for a couple days.

Spice Cake

I've been asked several times for the Spice Cake recipe I use for my favorite cake - My favorite birthday cake since I was a kid. I've been making it for years from The Joy of Cooking cookbook. But, as usual, I don't do the exact recipe...

First off, I have to say, I am not a cake person. I've never loved cakes for dessert, preferring pies, cheesecakes, and now Tiramisu. Also, I rarely eat desserts. I have to choose the types of carbs I consume carefully. I'm pretty good at avoiding store bought desserts and processed flour products. Since the only place my body can grow is out, when I take in foods, they are nutrient rich, phytonutrient rich choices. I even have to limit my homemade breads.

So when it comes to foods with flour, I make everything from home-ground grains. That way I know they are nutrient rich and at their optimal. So I've made all my pie crusts, cookies, and cakes from ground whole wheat. I use either pastry berries or white wheat, not the red winter wheat berries.

When I look at cakes, all cakes made from cake mixes have a plasticky sheen to them. Maybe it's just my self-conscious seeing things. Maybe my baked goods aren't as light and fluffy, but that's what's been built into our likes from the era when processed flour was introduced as a 'rich mans' food, just like processed white sugar was coveted in the same way.

In the Joy of Cooking, it's the Velvet Spice Cake, 

but here's my version:

I start by beating

4 egg whites 

1/8 tsp cream of tartar, till soft peaks form and gradually add in

1/4 c sugar, till peaks stiffer, but not dry.

I scrape this mixture into another bowl to add in at the end.

Next I beat 

1 1/2 sticks butter (12 Tb) in my Bosch mixer bowl, with the butter (usually unsalted if I have it) sliced in pieces so the whips don't get bent. And add in

1 1/4 c sugar

Beat in 3-4 lg egg yolks

Adding in the dry ingredients:

2 1/4 c whole grain flour (and I never sift either)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (I do have a cute nutmeg grinder)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp grd cloves

1/2 tsp salt

Fold in beaten egg whites.

(The eggs can be done whole, without mixing them separate if you don't mind the cake being denser.)

Pour into greased and floured tube or bundt pan, and it works in a 9x13.

Bake at 350 degrees about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool about 10 minutes to invert the cake out of the pan (or just leave it in the 9x13 if you want).

I always make a boiled brown sugar frosting for it. I don't have time to post it right this minute, so will do it later.

Just a side note: The Joy of Cooking has changed over the years and I don't know what's still in the newer versions. I heard it talked of on a program. Mainly editing out some of the details and maybe ingredients or recipes that people today don't stock. Hopefully it's still making everything from scratch.

January?

Calendar Girl me is doing pretty much nothing this month. I'm not home and some things I see I posted last January are not on my computer calendar. So if you're curious about some church calendar things and more, click on January 2008 in the side bar. Like I posted about Thomas Aquinas, John Bunyan, St Anthony the Desert Father ... 

And I don't even think I mentioned I had a birthday this month. We arrived here in Texas the day before my birthday and Heather had made my favorite cake - spice cake from scratch, leaving me the boiled brown sugar frosting to make. I hadn't made it for myself for awhile, so it tasted good!

Will Heather and Bill's baby be born in January or February, the month that holds my mom's birthday. It's looking like it will be February. We went to the military hospital OBGYN today and they checked on the baby's heart and amount of fluid and all's okay, and she's having regular mild contractions, but hardly any cervix softening. So unless the baby chooses to come soon, her midwife scheduled us to go on Tuesday for inducing since she'll be 2 weeks overdue. Heather really wants the baby to come when it wants to, so we'll see. We've been walking, and the other day was in FRIZZLE!! - little blades of ice hitting our faces! 

January is the month I love sitting with all the garden catalogues that have poured in and dream and plan my gardens. I usually order seeds now. BUT, we joined for another year a somewhat local, organic farm - weekly produce starting in June thru mid December. They can grow so much more than I can at my altitude, and we loved it last year. So what do I want to plant this year is the question. I'll probably start certain flower favorites soon. Probably still grow broccoli, snow peas, green beans ... there's still stuff I like to walk out and pick and eat! I still have my herb bed and of course tons of perennials! Thinking ...

Waiting ... More time to read and knit. Nothing else to organize, just some sewing to do, and I found Heather had a bunch of stitcherys done, so got some frames for them. Still cooking, thinking big for extra to freeze.

Bill's safely in Kuwait, or Iraq by now. He calls and emails Heather daily. We'll mail stuff to him tomorrow - lots of flat-rate boxes I can help her carry. The next, last, big thing, will be his guitar - we'll mail next week.

So I'm not flying home on January 31st. Don't know when yet ...

Happenings, and Still No Baby

I just came back to my computer to look for the Roasted Brussel Sprout recipe I often do. Though I could search for it, it's easiest to look at my blog, where I posted it in 2007 November.

Heather's not had her baby yet. We've heard probably all the wives tales. Don't think we'll do the castor oil Kerry; we have been walking most everyday, sometimes with errands, but a brisk walk in her neighborhood, sometimes with her dog, every other day. Habaneros Travis? Heather says "NO"! (She did have some spicy Chipotle food Sunday.) She still does her exercise video too, since it helps her back.

I've started sewing her window valances/curtains. The rods (and blinds) are already there (everything is white!), and I just want to add some color! When I get some of them done, I'll post more pictures. I did get her bed skirt done. I'm still organizing her craft/sewing stuff. The rest of the house, with her knowing where all is filed, Bill's tools are and what some of them might be needed for, instructions on all appliances and baby stuff in one place ... and the kitchen, are all pretty much organized and functioning well.

Now I've been cooking large-amount suppers so I can freeze some extra meals for her. Bill is over in Kuwait for a bit and calls Heather daily, sometimes twice a day, and emails a lot. Once he gets his headphones mailed to him, they can do the camera thing and 'talk' to one another. We joke about having the baby on her lap so he sees and hears "Dada".

Weather report? Last Thursday and Friday when I was outside painting, it was pleasantly in the upper 70's, low 80's - I loved it! (It's been freezing in Evergreen and snow showers.) BUT now, here in mid-Texas this week, it's cloudy, drizzly, and cold! Looks to be sunny after today. Good, or I'd get that SAD depression.

Pictures and Patience

Still no baby. Monte's here at Heather's home again, but leaving tomorrow. Since no baby yet, I'm probably going to be staying longer. I feel so fortunate to be able to stay longer. The only thing I really feel committed to, in returning to Evergreen, is starting seeds in my greenhouse for this years veggie garden, and flowers. If that's the main thing "calling" to me, I guess that shows one of my main loves in life. I'm able to read here (once I'm not so organizational focused) and knit (tho the main project I brought I've taken out several times - I'm at the point of thinking the pattern is wrong!). The weather's nice for outdoor activities, like walking, and we may get a garden going.

I posted some pictures on two days.

Happenings, and Still No Baby

Okay, I'm sore (actually better now that I sat knitting watching a good oldie movie). I painted all the parts of 4 windsor style chairs and table dark olive green. Tomorrow I'll finish up the flat horizontal surfaces blue. My getting-older-body does not straighten as easy after scrunching and sitting and stretching in all sorts of angles. Gotta finish before it might rain Friday.

Rain? That means the barometer will be changing ... that's one of those possibilities for bringing on babies. Monte left this morning for a few days, so it's me that'll be off to the hospital with Heather (the military hospital is only 1/2-1 mile away). So every night before we go to bed I think about clothes, phone and camera in purse, and my knitting ready.

Heather has a piano. At home she used to play the piano almost daily, so we knew it would be something that she'd really enjoy this year, and Bill wanted her to have one too. Monte and me had seen a decent one, minus a bench, at a second hand store ... is it okay? ... then the hassle of getting it here ... So Sunday morning at church Monte talked with the pianist (Heather sometimes went to her house to play her piano), she called us while we were eating out after church, with a phone number of an older man she's used for piano tuning for years. Monte called him. He had gotten a good piano in the day before, tho he no longer has his store. We went and looked at it with Heather Monday. It had a cute little screw up piano seat. And you know what?! He was coming to the base the next day to tune all the school's pianos while the kids were on break! So Heather got her piano the next day! 

Gotta let the dog Max in for the night and go to bed. Oh ... while painting, besides listening for a dove (I finally did hear one, but there's so much excavation for a new neighborhood nearby all you hear the most of is the back-up beep-beeps of trucks and tractors)(Heather's got a large "live"[green year round] oak tree in the front yard with lots of birds), I was analyzing the social psychology of dogs in a neighborhood of many dogs - at what do they bark?!

No Baby Yet

Today is Heather's due date, and no baby yet. When we got here, we were expecting Bill to be deployed the next morning, but that was extended out to Saturday, and now he's for sure leaving tomorrow morning.

____________________

So the above is what I wrote Sunday morning minus a lot more, but the internet wireless connection I pick up from some neighbor was so spotty yesterday that it didn't post.

Bill is off to Iraq and no baby came on her due date. We were up last night at 1am to drive Bill to his check-in and wait in a gym sitting on bleachers watching the 2 units come together. We ate grilled hot dogs at 2am and the 4 buses of guys drove off at 3am. I was fine till I saw a maybe 12 year old boy walk away with his mom with red, teary eyes, after saying their goodbyes at the bus. Heather stood by Bill's bus window till it drove off. She's sad.

3/4 of the people around here when we're out shopping, eating, and in church are military family peoples. And there's a great mix of so many varieties of people at church and everywhere- from Oriental, Hispanic, Blacks and all. It all feels so healthy and whole. We feel Heather will be surrounded by people who are familiar with long separations and are a great support to one another. She's looking forward to next year's return and helping out with all the homecoming events, which is really a big deal around here.

On base you hear trumpet tunes at 6:30am, 5pm and taps at 11pm. It's not loud, so if the home's not quiet, you miss them. I'm starting to look at clocks at 5 to check their timing, and it's a nice sound. We need ID's to get back on the base when we leave, and because I didn't check in with Monte at the visitor center, or I might need my own vehicle rental, I can't go off by myself without either Monte or Heather. I guess this will help us feel that Heather will be safe here alone.

Gotta go. Monte and me found an old town street last Friday that had lots of used furniture stores and we've found some great bargains for some of the cozy needs around here. So today we paint them. I'll try and post pictures some time soon.